Best Intro Book

Best Intro Book is a site that suggests the best book to read on any chosen topic. It’s a nice and simple approach to a Septivium-like problem, although it seems like it’s not quite there.

There’s no information about how these recommendations have been arrived at, so it’s hard to judge how authoritative it might be. The search is also a little odd. Searching for, say, british history returns lots of books about other kinds of history, rather than saying there are no relevant results. It’s possibly more interesting to browse all the categories than try and think of things to search for.

However, it’s certainly a good starting point if you’re looking for books on a topic, but I’d like a little more information about the reasons for the choices. (via Jason Kottke)